Insights · Baby & Kids
We read baby and children's listings with one question in mind: could an AI shopping assistant confidently tell a carer whether a product suits the child they're buying for?
Most categories assume the buyer and the user are the same person. This one doesn't. A carer choosing a sleeping bag, a car seat insert or a pair of shoes is buying for someone who cannot try it on, cannot report back, and changes size every few months. Every fact that would otherwise be settled by handling the product has to be published as words.
“For babies” is not an age. “Toddler” is not a size. Neither one tells a carer, or an assistant, whether the product suits this child.
Three facts carry almost all of the decision here, and they are independent of each other. The age range tells a carer roughly who the product is designed for. The weight or height range is what actually determines whether it fits and works as intended — a nine-month-old can sit anywhere across a wide band. And the safety information — the standard a product is certified to, the features that matter, the ages it must not be used at — is the fact that turns a maybe into a yes or a no.
We should be precise about the limit here, because it matters. Squiggle does not assess whether a product is safe, and it does not verify a certification — that is the manufacturer's responsibility and the regulator's. What we assess is whether the published listing gives an AI assistant enough evidence to answer a carer's question at all. Where it doesn't, the assistant does the cautious thing, which for a child's product means declining to recommend rather than guessing.
Why this happens
Age bands, weight ranges and certification marks are already on the packaging, the swing tag and the care label. They arrive with the product, so they can feel like something the listing doesn't need to repeat. But an AI assistant never sees the swing tag. It reads the description, and a fact that exists only on the physical product is, to the assistant, a fact that does not exist.
This category also punishes a hedge more heavily than most. For a jumper, an uncertain answer costs a sale. For anything a child sleeps in, travels in, or puts in their mouth, an uncertain answer costs the recommendation outright — the assistant will steer a carer to a listing that states its ranges plainly rather than take a chance on one that doesn't.
What to do about it
State the age range in the description text — “6–18 months,” not “for babies.” It's the first thing a carer filters on and the first thing an assistant looks for.
Give the weight and height range as well as the age. Children of the same age vary widely, and the weight range is what actually decides whether a product fits.
Name the safety standard your product is certified to — in words, in the description. A certification mark on the packaging is invisible to an assistant reading the page.
Say what the product must not be used for. Age minimums, choking-hazard notes and stage limits are the questions a cautious carer asks first — and answering them builds more trust than omitting them.
List materials and washing instructions in text. Fabric next to skin, and whether it survives a hot wash, are practical facts that decide between two similar products.
Convert your size names into measurements. “00,” “0” and “Toddler” differ between brands; centimetres do not, and an assistant can only compare what it can read.
Squiggle reads your entire Shopify catalogue and shows you which products leave age, size and safety information for the buyer to guess — and what to add first.
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Squiggle's category guidance is informed by ongoing analysis of publicly available ecommerce product information. Illustrative examples explain common product-understanding principles and do not represent findings from any one merchant or the entire category. No individual store is named. Squiggle assesses the evidence a listing provides; it does not assess product safety and does not verify any certification. Always follow the product's own labelling and the relevant Australian safety requirements. Public catalogue data only — no account access, sales data, or private information was used.